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Science 30 May 1980:
Vol. 208. no. 4447, pp. 1027 - 1029
DOI: 10.1126/science.208.4447.1027
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Articles

Acid Precipitation and Sulfate Deposition in Florida

PATRICK L. BREZONIK 1, ERIC S. EDGERTON 1, and CHARLES D. HENDRY 1

1 Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611

The acidity of rainfall in Florida has increased markedly in the past 25 years, and the average sulfate and nitrate concentrations have increased by factors of 1.6 and 4.5, respectively, over the period. Annual average pH values below 4.7 now occur over the northern three quarters of the state. Summer rainfall has average pH values 0.2 to 0.3 unit lower than winter rainfall, and sulfate concentrations at most sites are higher in summer. The annual deposition of H+ (about 300 to 500 equivalents per hectare) in northern Florida is a third to a half of the deposition in the heavily impacted northeastern United States; comparable figures for excess sulfate (derived from sulfur dioxide) are 7 to 11 kilograms of sulfur per hectare or 50 to 90 percent of the sulfate deposition rates at Hubbard Brook, New Hampshire.

Submitted on December 4, 1979
Revised on February 19, 1980


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Effects of Acid Rain on Freshwater Ecosystems.
D. W. Schindler and D. W. SCHINDLER (1988)
Science 239, 149-157
   Abstract »    PDF »
Microbial Transformation of Sulfate in Forest Soils.
W. T. Swank, W. T. SWANK, J. W. FITZGERALD, and J. T. ASH (1984)
Science 223, 182-184
   Abstract »    PDF »


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